Have a fabulous frugal February with the fantastic frugaleers

[northender]

As we filled the old thread, thought I'd start a new one for February.

Dilidali sticking To cash really does help, doesn't it?

Off To find cost of teens thread mentioned by Ellis

Should be NSD other than roads/parking for airport later.

Thanks Ellis and spotty we'll give it a go this weekend and see what happens! Our big frugal objective is buying a house. I think we're ready to take the plunge and have been told we can borrow enough with our deposit to get a 2 bed house and pay about 200 less a month than we do in rent for the first 5 years.

But being freelance I'm nervous of not being able to make payments if work dries up so my goal is to be frugal to
a) save an emergency fund in case neither of us can work and be sure we can still pay mortgage for a bit
b) be in frugal habits by the time we move in case work dries up and we need to live off less

I have finally acknowledged that my spending has got out of hand. I have loans and credit card balances which I'm repaying £600 a month on, but that doesn't leave me enough to save so I will gave a Christmas fund etc so that goes on my credit cards again.

I am going to speak to the mortgage company to see if we can extend our mortgage (we have a very low LTV) to clear all the debts. I know I will pay more interest overall, but it will be a manageable monthly amount leaving some for savings. I am going to speak to the mortgage company this week to see if it is feasible (I won't say for debt repayment) and what the cost would be before I speak to DH. I have been waking up at night stressing so I really want to sort this out.

I'm expecting DH to go mad, but he can't think any less of me than I already think of myself.

I'm trying to stick to £100 per week for food shopping. Spent £14.50 in M&S this morning on bread, eggs etc. but DH is away this week so I'm planning on jacket spuds etc for dinners and using stuff from the freezer.

I need to do a a Tesco order as I need lactose free milk for DDs, Aldi don't sell that! I have loads in the freezer so will try to hit £40 minimum for free delivery. (I have a super saver delivery plan) I managed a £110 shop last week split between Aldi and Tesco.

I'm trying to take lunch to work each say, or a can of soup/leftovers, unfortunately yesterday my 3yo left the soup can in the hall!

Does anyone if/when tesco are doing club card boost again, particularly on baby stuff?

I've just submitted my meter readings for my electricity (all electric here) as we only get billed six monthly. Last bill was 5th November. We are £352 in credit I'm going to leave it until we get the actual bill in May and then get them to give us the money so we can use that for our holiday in June.

Well, I expected to have an NSD today but I ended up spending... £1500! Which makes me finally DEBT FREE for the first time in many many years! Ugh, such a weight off! That's the last time, no more debts, no more overdraft, no more irresponsible borrowing then burying my head in the sand until its double due to charges I feel like I can really move.forward now. I still need to be incredibly frugal (just started a business, very, very low income and not making any profit yet) but I have a clean slate :)

£60 on asda delivery yesterday, £18 on private swimming lessons for kids today- am happy as they are close in age and ability they can go in together. ..2 for the price of one :-)

I was going to make today a NSD but ended up downloading an album off itunes for £10. I did put 90 CDs through music magpie to make about £40. Have asked DH to pick up some cardboard boxes from tesco when he takes his mum there shopping after work. Hopefully get those packaged up and sent off this week.
Once the CDs are gone, I'm starting on the books and DVDs.

Good for you Amber! It's a great feeling isn't it when the debts finally go I got debt free last year and still have to be frugal ( swapped debt payments for childcare payments!) but it feels so good not to owe anybody anything

Thanks, Ellis! Yes, fab feeling. I have car tax and insurance due soon, so I need to save for that, though :(

Well done amber

Got my hair done today which costs a small fortune but is budgeted for.

77p on a reduced sandwich for lunch. 7 something in asda but that was paid for with a birthday voucher. 4.69 in Aldi.

Welcome Auditangel I hope it's not as bad as you think.

Well done amber, brilliant start to the year. If it was a cc ring in a few weeks to make sure there's no pro rata interest payment.

£3 for a steak.

That's great, btw, spottyteacakes! I love when unexpected money appears from somewhere! And evenb better you'll get it just when you need it!

I need my hair doing soon but going to use salan junior for maintenance, which is tonnes cheaper, and only pay full whack if I'm having a style change.

Been to Morrisons because I had a £1.25 off a £25 shop voucher. I loathe Morrisons with a passion now but I wanted that £1.25 for my Xmas fund. They've given me a £4.48 off an £85 spend but not sure if I want to give them any more custom. I think I might have to meal plan carefully.

Also cancelled my Green Flag cover and put that £2.92 into my Xmas fund which now stands at £60.99.

Whilst at Morrisons I have picked up a bottle of Bacardi to put away for husband's brother for Xmas. It was reduced to £13 which I know is a good price as a girl I used to work for once got hideously excited when it was reduced to £14 in Tesco one time.

So, in total excluding voucher cost came to £68.95 of which £13 was the bacardi however I didn't get anything I could make meals with! I also bought hair dye (£4.49) and a 500g jar of Nescafe for a fiver, so £51.46 spent on groceries so far.

DH got his tyres done this morning so he's to go and pay for them on Monday and it's £188 in total. My 'everything else' fund is going to be well in the red this month (boo hoo).

Amber Yay! That's exactly the same amount we had to pay 18mo ago to clear all borrowing and we've been happy and free ever since. Now not that I would encourage frivolity, but I think you deserve a little treat tonight Even if it's just a cup of tea and putting your feet up!

Spotty You've just reminded me to send my reading today too. Fantastic amount you have there, I think we're about £180 in credit. I know some people want to pay the lowest possible, but I like having all eventualities covered in case I end up using more electricity than expected so no nasty surprises, but also getting a nice little lump sum in my 6mo bill! I did the same with water before (no water bill here), ended up paying £5/month for nearly a year and still got £80 back when we moved. No idea how we were using so little water

I've been pleased to see how our attitude to food has changed, with a little gentle encouragement there's been a big shift in using up leftovers. Our fridge is quite bare at the moment, a couple of packs of meat in the freezer. In the past DH would say, "There's no food!" and I would be lazy and have toast, but after picking up our fruit and veg today I pulled out all of the odd bits needing using up and next thing I know DH is making pizza dough and mixing in the leftover cheese, meat and some herbs and then cracking eggs on top. It was really nice! We all liked it, including DS, and it was so much more sensible than letting the odd bits go off, staring at the cupboards and then buying food out (groceries arrive later this evening).

NSD yesterday, £2.95 spend today on a cake to bring to a friend for tea, I didn't have time to bake one.

Also £60 grocery shop/washing powder etc (although we got 3 boxes of powder and 3 washing up liquids as they were on 3 for 2 offer, so it would only have been about £45 without the extra stuff and we won't need any for months now haha)

meal planned until next Sunday, all I'll need to buy food wise is a bag of salad later in the week.

Should be NSD tomorrow, have all food in and a TONNE of work to do. Am giving a massive presentation at work on Wednesday which will directly feed into the promotion decision, so I want to get it completely written and practiced tomorrow so I know it off by heart by Weds.

Well done amber hopefully that'll be me in two years

My friend owns a hair salon so I'm really lucky in that respect!

I had a nsd yesterday and would have tomorrow but need to pick up the two things we couldn't get in aldi.

A surprise NSD today. Was at work for a few hours... Came home and had lunch. Was going to get school shoes for ds but it was really chucking it down so decided to ring in to Clark's to reserve it and will pop in tomorrow. We were going to have a Chinese New Year meal out but I decided to cook up a storm to make up for yesterday (rather like having the Christmas meal on Boxing Day!!!) felt really bad but also great coz I whipped up 6 dishes in 1.5hr which is good going. And everything from fridge, freezer, whatever. So great stuff!!

Oh I parted with £40 but it was for red packets for the children (we give money in red packets for kids for Chinese New Year) but that totally doesn't count.

Will spend on school shoes tomorrow but hopefully nothing too much more!!

Just checked clubcard statement and I have £15.50. Must remember to use it when I buy fuel. Instead of frittering it away on food shopping I'm saving it to boost on toys at Xmas.

So now, as of 1/2/14 I have 6 Xmas presents purchased and £15.50 saved towards it

I am very impressed and a little envious, thenight! That's good going

Thank you

There's 8 November/December birthdays in my family so I start panicking usually in October! This year I'm way ahead of usual.

For some reason I haven't been able to post from my phone for the last few days do am very behind on the thread, and catching up now.

Thurs and Fri both NSD's for me. Big shop and Ikea tomorrow tho, eeek!

Hi AuditAngel

I remember that hideous stress of being awake worrying about money..

Sounds like you have funds coming in, just need to get to grips with controlling spending. I've finally woken up to that fact - taken me about 20 years but I'm there now!

I reckon, now you've taken control, you'll feel much less anxious about it xxxx

congrats Amber - well done!!!

I resisted spending silly money on an outfit that I wanted for DD today (that she did not need). Feel really good for buying nothing!